Online Content Collective - February 27, 2014

The constant evolution of SEO marches on, and WordStream gathers the thoughts of a few SEO psychics to predict the future of search engine algorithms operating without consideration of links. What we’ve seen the past few years and continue to see is the diffusion of SEO throughout business units. This spread has created a greater value for the more broadly developed SEO marketer that can begin to take their analytic mindset and incorporate an understanding of individual behavior.

Gary Vaynerchuck is the epitome of the new marketer who can not only analyze the end result of a marketing effort but step back to identify what has really caused the desired behavior. His sit down with Chase Jarvis is fascinating and covers a broad range of topics for the modern marketer or business owner.

Many people noted the lack luster commercials that aired during the Super Bowl a few weeks ago. A big reason for this trend is that smart marketers are finding greater value using YouTube instead of spending millions for 30 seconds of air time. Distilled provides us with a detailed examination of the often undervalued practice of YouTube marketing.

This post by Elisa Gabbert doesn’t offer much actionable advice, but it’s not trying to. What it does is explore the potential future of search engine algorithms absent links as a factor. Experts such as Eric Enge and Rand Fishkin answer questions about:

The future of link value in Google’s algorithms.

If Google stopped using links, what metrics would replace it.

How SEO’s should alter their strategy in anticipation of algorithmic changes.

One of the greatest bits of advice in the article came from Aaron Wall while explaining considerations for developing a long-term SEO strategy:

Anything which is scalable and widely scaled will eventually be promoted as a form of spam, unless it is done by the home team. Thus the more differentiated one's efforts are and the harder + more expensive they are to reverse-engineer and duplicate, the better.

Distilled’s Phil Nottingham runs us through everything you need to know about how to get the most from your YouTube channel, starting with properly understanding appropriate goals and metrics, and taking us through the execution and analysis.